Actor Tommy 'Tiny' Lister to plead guilty in mortgage fraud scheme

6:33 p.m. EST, August 31, 2012|By Stuart Pfeifer

Tommy “Tiny” Lister, a character actor who has appeared in nearly 100 movies including “Jackie Brown” and “Beverly Hills Cop II,” has agreed to plead guilty to a mortgage fraud scheme that cost banks $3.8 million.

The 54-year-old actor entered the plea agreement Friday, the same day prosecutors charged him with conspiring from 2005 to 2007 to buy homes he could not afford and to withdraw more than $1.1 million cash in home-equity loans that were not repaid.

Prosecutors accused Lister and five other people — a real estate agent, a mortgage loan officer, a bank manager, an escrow officer and an accountant — of using falsified records to help Lister unlawfully acquire four homes for $5.7 million.

Lister, who lives in Chatsworth, defaulted on the loans. Banks later sold them at a loss of more than $2.6 million, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.

Lister was also accused of sumbitting falsified W-2 forms and a fake pay stub in his application for the home equity lines of credit.

He agreed to plead guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He has not yet entered a plea.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.